Anniversary a reminder of Qaddafi's media repression

As Col. Muammar Qaddafi, 67, celebrates the 40th anniversary
of his ascent to power this week, it is unlikely that any of the numerous
international guests will venture to ask the Libyan dictator or his aides what
happened to journalist Abdullah Ali
al-Sanussi al-Darrat after his arbitrary arrest 36 years ago. Al-Darrat, a
journalist and writer from Benghazi,
Libya's
second-largest city, vanished following his detention without
trial in 1973, according to
international human rights groups and the Western Europe-based Libyan League
for Human Rights.

Repeated calls on
Libyan authorities over the past decades from international rights groups,
including CPJ, to shed light on al-Darrat's whereabouts have fallen on deaf
ears. CPJ encouraged colleagues all over the world to write to Qaddafi, who
took power in the bloodless military coup that toppled King Idriss on September
1, 1969, to inquire about al-Darrat's fate. But the "Revolution's Guide" and
the "King of Kings," as the longest-serving ruler in Africa and the Arab world
like to be called, ignored such queries.

No information has
ever surfaced as to the basis for al-Darrat's detention, his whereabouts, or even
whether he was still alive. His fate is reminiscent of the disappearance of
other Libyan writers and dissidents, as well as that of the prominent Lebanese
Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr and his two companions who arrived in Libya in1978 to
meet with government officials. They were never heard of again. Lebanese
government officials said Qaddafi was responsible for their disappearance.

Al-Darrat's
disappearance occurred at a time when Qaddafi was leading a terror campaign
against freedom of association and expression. He warned his critics that the
price for dissent would be execution. Later, Libyan dissidents and critical
journalists living in exile, officially called "stray dogs," were targeted.
Some of them were gunned down. Others like Mansur Khikia, former foreign
minister and member of the board of the Cairo-based Arab Organization for Human
Rights, disappeared in December 1993
in the Egyptian capital.

Unfortunately,
Qaddafi's merciless attacks on Libyan journalists, whose sole "crime" was to
expose cases of abuse of power, nepotism and corruption, did not get enough
media attention. One of the victims of this unabated war on freedom of expression
was Dayf al-Ghazal, a former journalist for the government-owned
daily Azahf al-Akhdar and contributor to the London-based Web sites Libya
Alyoum and Libya Jeel.

Like al-Darrat, al-Ghazal was from Benghazi.
His disfigured body was found in the suburbs of this Mediterranean city in June
2005, after he went missing from his home for nearly two weeks, according to
several sources. This happened about the same time well-known Lebanese
journalist and democracy advocate Samir Qassir was killed in a car bomb in Beirut. To date, no
credible and transparent inquiry into al-Ghazal's death has been conducted.
Many believe that his online articles on rising corruption among government
officials led to his abduction by government agents and extra-judicial killing.

Al-Ghazal's assassination was perpetrated after Libya started
its return to the international scene and inaugurated its costly public
relations campaign to improve its stained image in Western capitals following
nearly two decades of ostracism spurred by U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Yet
media remain tightly muzzled.

The nationalization in April of the satellite news channel Al-Libya
and its sister papers Oea and Cyrene,
which were launched in 2007 by Qaddafi'son and outspoken lobbyist Sayf al-Islam
and his Al-Ghad Foundation, came as a reminder that there is still no genuine
tolerance for independent journalism. This government decision was taken after Al-Libya
broadcast material referring to the use of torture and persecution of
dissidents in the country, according to news reports.

Commenting on the nationalization of these media outlets,
the Libyan League for Human Rights said on World Press freedom Day that freedom
of expression is not a "privilege" that can be granted and withdrawn at any
time, but a constitutional right that "cannot exist without genuine political
opening." It also reported that several journalists and intellectuals,
including many working for Al-Ghad Foundation,had been summoned this year for interrogation by state security
and press prosecutors.

The human rights league noted that there were "serious
indications" that the office of the press prosecutor had been involved in recent
attacks aimed at destroying critical Web sites, and that it had issued
instructions to Libyan embassies to take to court publishers and journalists critical
of the Libyan regime, particularly in Africa and the Arab world. It mentioned,
for instance, the complaint filed this year against the independent Moroccan
dailies Al-Massae, Al-Jarida al-Oula, and Al-Ahdath al-Magrebia
for defaming Qaddafi. A court in Casablanca
ordered the three dailies in June to pay a crippling fine and damages to the
Libyan dictator.

This trial, which was closely monitored by CPJ and prompted
angry reactions among journalists and human rights defenders in the region,
provided a new example not only of Libya's "war without borders" on independent
journalism, but also revealed the determination of less autocratic Arab
governments to keep the media on tight leash.

"It seems that President Qaddafi, after he overthrew press
freedom in Libya,
has started to focus his attention and experience toward prosecuting Arab journalists
outside his country. Thus, we all have to stand by these journalists, in order
to preserve what is left of press freedom in the Arab world," said the Cairo-based
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Kamel Labidi is a freelance journalist and former CPJ representative and consultant for the Middle East and North Africa region. Labidi returned from exile to Tunisia in 2011 to head the National Commission to Reform Information and Communication. He resigned in 2012 to protest the lack of political will of the Islamist-led government to implement the commission’s recommendations.